A
FEMINIST’S HONEYMOON: ELIZABETH CADY STANTON’S WEDDING JOURNEY.
Elizabeth
Cady married Henry Stanton on Friday, May 10, 1840.
Friday is commonly
supposed to be a most unlucky day. But as we lived together, without more than
the usual matrimonial friction, for nearly half a century and had seven
children…no one need be afraid of going through the ceremony on Friday.
A
difficult arose when Elizabeth wanted the clergyman to leave out the word obey in the vows. I obstinately refused to obey one with whom I supposed I was entering
into an equal relation. The clergyman reluctantly conceded the point, but
revenged himself by praying and sermonizing for an hour.
The
honeymoon trip took the couple to England, where they planned to attend the
World Anti-slavery Convention. On board ship, Elizabeth was told to tone down. She asked what she had done
wrong. Her critic answered: I heard you
call your husband ‘Henry’ in the presence of strangers, which is not
permissible in polite society. You should always say ‘Mr. Stanton.’
As
the journey took 18 days, she had time
to make some improvement to her speech,
or, at least, to consider all friendly suggestions.
On
arrival in London, she found their lodging house the gloomiest abode I had ever seen, but the arrival of a delegation of ladies, the next day, from Boston and
Philadelphia, changed the atmosphere.
To
her disappointment Elizabeth found that the delegates were split over the
question whether women should be allowed to speak and vote at the convention. To me there was no question so important as
the emancipation of women from the dogmas of the past -- political, religious,
and social. It struck me as very
remarkable that abolitionists, who felt so keenly the wrongs of the slave,
should be so oblivious to the equal wrongs of their own mothers, wives, and
sisters, when, according to the common law, both classes occupied a similar
legal status.
(Source: Stanton, Eighty Years And More, New York 1898)
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